Houzan Mahmoud is the UK Representative of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. She is a leading international voice on the oppression of Iraqi women both under the US/UK occupation and the growing influence of conservative Islamists. She has led numerous campaigns on behalf of women's and workers' rights in Iraq and has been a frequent contributor to The Independent and The Guardian, among other publications. Many of her articles have been translated into and published in French, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Farsi, English, Finish, Swedish and German. She has also been interviewed by CNN, NBC, Sky News, BBC World Service, the Asian and African press, and numerous European, North American and Australian media outlets. Houzan has recently co-founded an initiative to end the occupation of Iraq and present a democratic, secular, egalitarian alternative through the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC).